Table Of ContentThe Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sexual Life of the Child, by Albert Moll
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Sexual Life of the Child
Author: Albert Moll
Contributor: Edward L. Thorndike
Translator: Eden Paul
Release Date: March 25, 2009 [EBook #28402]
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF-8
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEXUAL LIFE OF THE CHILD ***
Produced by Fritz Ohrenschall, Turgut Dincer and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
book was produced from scanned images of public domain
material from the Google Print project.)
THE SEXUAL LIFE OF
THE CHILD
BY
DR. ALBERT MOLL
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY
DR. EDEN PAUL
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
EDWARD L. THORNDIKE
PROFESSOR OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Printers mark.
NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1919
All rights reserved
Copyright, 1912,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published June, 1912.
Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
INTRODUCTION
Dr. Moll is a gifted physician of long experience whose work with those problems of medicine and hygiene which
demand scientific acquaintance with human nature has made him well known to experts in these fields. In this book he
has undertaken to describe the origin and development, in childhood and youth, of the acts and feelings due to sex; to
explain the forces by which sex-responses are directed and misdirected; and to judge the wisdom of existing and
proposed methods of preventing the degradation of a child's sexual life.
This difficult task is carried out, as it should be, with dignity and frankness. In spite of the best intentions, a scientific
book on sex-psychology is likely to appear, at least in spots, to gratify a low curiosity; but in Dr. Moll's book there is
no such taint. Popular books on sex-hygiene, on the other hand, are likely to suffer from a pardonable but harmful
delicacy whereby the facts of anatomy, physiology, and psychology which are necessary to make their principles
comprehensible and useful, are omitted, veiled, or even distorted. Dr. Moll honors his readers by a frankness which
may seem brutal to some of them. It is necessary.
With dignity and frankness Dr. Moll combines notable good sense. In the case of any exciting movement in advance of
traditional custom, the forerunners are likely to combine a certain one-sidedness and lack of balance with their really
valuable progressive ideas. The greater sagacity and critical power are more often found amongst the men of science
who avoid public discussion of exciting social or moral reforms, and are suspicious of startling and revolutionary
doctrines or practices. It is therefore fortunate that a book on the sexual life during childhood should have been written
by a man of critical, matter-of-fact mind, of long experience as a medical specialist, and of wide scholarship, who has
no private interest in any exciting psychological doctrine or educational panacea.
The translation of this book will be welcomed by men and women from many different professions, but alike in the need
of preparation to guide the sex-life of boys and girls and to meet emergencies caused by its corruption by weakness
within or attack from without. Of the clergymen in this country who are in real touch with the lives of their charges, there
is hardly a one who does not, every so often, have to minister to a mind whose moral and religious distress depends on
an unfortunate sex history. Conscientious and observant teachers realize, in a dim way, that they cannot do justice to
even the purely intellectual needs of pupils without understanding the natural history of those instinctive impulses, which,
concealed and falsified as they are under our traditional taboos, nevertheless retain enormous potency. The facts, so
clearly shown in the present volume, that the life of sex begins long before its obvious manifestations at puberty, and that
the direction of its vaguer and less differentiated habits in these earlier years is as important as its hygiene at the more
noticeable climax of the early 'teens, increase the teacher's responsibility. Moreover, there is probably not a teacher of
ten years' standing who has not faced—or by ignorance neglected—some emergency where moderate insight into the
laws whereby the vague instincts of sex are turned into healthy and unhealthy habits, and form right and wrong attitudes,
could have rescued a boy or girl from years of wretched anxiety, or degraded conduct, or both.
The social worker, still more emphatically, knows his or her need of a surer equipment for the wise direction of the life
of sex in childhood and its protection from the abominable suggestions of those who are themselves sexually diseased or
depraved. The casual questioning of medical or legal friends, reminiscences of vague references in the Bible or classic
literature, and the miscellaneous experiences which life itself throws in one's way, are hopelessly inadequate.
The conscientious practitioner of medicine, too, will gladly add to the scanty, though accurate, knowledge of the sex-
instinct and its pathology which is all that even the best medical course can compass, the facts presented by a specialist
in this field. The easiest way for those parents who accept the responsibility for rational guidance of their children in
matters of sex-behavior to discharge this responsibility is by the aid of the family physician. For the physician in such
cases to gain the child's confidence, understand his individual dangers and possible false attitudes, and give more than
perfunctory general counsel, knowledge of the psychology of sex-behavior, as well as its physiology, is necessary. In
general, also, modern medical practice must look after the prevention of bad habits and unnecessary anxieties in
respect to the sex-life as well as their cure; and the science of preventive medicine in this field receives a substantial
contribution from this summary of the sex-life of childhood.
There are now many men and women who are dissatisfied with doing for their children merely what outgrown customs
decree, who are willing to give time and study, as well as money and affection, in their service, and who are eager to
see or hear or read anything pertinent to their welfare. For many such parents, if they are of the scientific, matter-of-fact
type, Dr. Moll's book may prove the means of answering many troublesome questions and of prompting to a wiser
coöperation with church, school, and the medical profession in safeguarding their own—and, we may hope, all other—
children against blunders and contaminations.
One word of caution is perhaps necessary for those readers who are unused to descriptions of symptoms of diseases,
abnormalities, and defects. Such readers are likely to interpret perfectly ordinary facts as the symptoms which they have
been studying. So the medical student at the beginning of his reading, fears appendicitis when he has slight indigestion,
v
vi
vii
and sees incipient tuberculosis in every household! So the embryonic psychologist finds 'degenerates' in every crowd of
boys, 'hypnotic suggestion' in every popular preacher, and 'aphasia' in any friend who forgets names and faces! Dr.
Moll gives more protection against such exaggerated inferences than is commonly given in books on pathology, but
many of his readers will do well to be on their guard lest they interpret perfectly innocent behavior as a symptom of
abnormality. The mischief done by our present ignorance and neglect of important features of sex-behavior should be
prevented without the incidence of mischief from exaggerated expectations and unwise meddling.
It would be evasive to shirk mention of the fact that many of the most devoted servants of health and morals object to
public discussion of the facts of sex. They discard enlightenment about sex as relatively unimportant because a clean
ancestry, decency in the family and neighborhood, and noble needs in friendship, love, and marriage must, in any case,
be the main roots of healthy direction and ideal restraint of the sex-instinct. Or they fear enlightenment as a possible
stimulus to undesirable imagination and experimentation. Or they dislike, even abhor, it as esthetically repulsive—
shocking to an unreasoned but cherished craving for silence about these things—a craving which the customs of our
land and time have made an unwritten law of society.
Of the first of these three attitudes, it may be said briefly that the relative unimportance of enlightenment is a fact, but no
argument against it. Modesty, austerity, and clean living on the part of parents will counterbalance much negligence in
direct guidance or protection. But the former need be in no wise lessened by improving the latter. Of the second, I dare
affirm that if the men and women in America should stop whatever they are doing for an evening and read this book,
there would be less harmful imagination as a result than from the occupations which its reading would replace. Of all the
causes of sexual disorder, the reading of scientific books by reputable men is surely the least! The third—that is, the
esthetic—repulsion toward publicity in respect to the natural history of sex, I will not pretend to judge. Only we must
not strain at gnats and swallow camels. It is no sign of true esthetic or moral sensitiveness for a person to be shocked by
'Ghosts,' 'Mrs. Warren's Profession,' or 'The Sexual Life of the Child,' who finds pleasant diversion in the treatment of
sex-behavior in the ordinary novel, newspaper, or play.
On the whole, the gain from giving earnest men and women the facts they need, seems likely to outweigh by much the
harm done to such light minds as will be misled, or to such sentimental minds as will be wounded, by enlightenment
about sex. No harm will be done to those men and women whose interest in the welfare of children makes them eager
to face every problem that it involves, and whose faith in the ideal possibilities of love between the sexes is too well-
grounded to be disturbed by the facts of its natural history.
EDWARD L. THORNDIKE.
May, 1912.
PREFACE
The number of books and essays dealing with sexual topics published during recent years is by no means small; but
although some of the works in question have added considerably to our knowledge, the advance of sexual science as a
whole has not been proportionate to the extent of these contributions. The reason is that insufficient attention has been
paid to special problems; and the majority of writers have either repeated what has already been said by another, in
identical or equivalent words, or else they have published comprehensive treatises on the sexual life, which may,
perhaps, be of interest to the laity, but do not in any way enrich our science. Further advances in our knowledge of the
sexual life can be effected only by the investigation of special problems. Such work is, indeed, laborious; but that it is
also fruitful, has been clearly shown, not only in the first instance by von Krafft-Ebing, but more recently, above all, by
Havelock Ellis, whose special studies have contributed more to the advance of sexual science than the work of dozens
of other writers.
The recognition of the need for specialised investigations has led me, in this province of scientific work as in other
departments, to devote myself to the elucidation of certain definite problems. For several reasons I determined to study
the sexual life of the child. In the first place, I believe that an advance in our knowledge of the sexual life of the child will
indirectly enrich our knowledge also of the sexual life of the adult. In order to understand the sexual life, the gradual
development of that life must be recognised, and for this purpose it is essential that we should study the sexual life of the
child. Moreover, the modern movement in favour of the sexual enlightenment of young persons renders indispensable
the possession of precise knowledge of the sexuality of the child; and such knowledge is no less necessary to all
instructors of youth, especially to those to whom the psychical life of children is a matter of concern. Judges and
magistrates also, as we shall see in the seventh chapter, are very greatly interested in this matter: it is, in fact, hardly
open to question that erroneous legal decisions and the unjust condemnation of reputed criminals can only be avoided
by giving our judicial authorities the opportunity of obtaining sound knowledge concerning the sexual life of children in all
its modes of manifestation. By all these considerations I have been induced to study the problem of the sexuality of
children from the most widely different points of view. Although other writers, such as Freud, Bell, and Kötscher, have
contributed certain data towards the solution of these questions, no comprehensive study of the subject has hitherto
been attempted. My material does not consist only of the reports of patients. In addition, in order to avoid a one-sided
viii
ix
x-xi
xii
dependence upon pathological considerations, I have accepted with greater confidence the reports concerning the
sexual life of children which I have received from healthy individuals, both men and women. I take this opportunity of
tendering my most heartfelt thanks to all those who have assisted me in this manner.
ALBERT MOLL.
CONTENTS
page
Introduction
v
Preface
xi
Contents
xiii
chap.
I. Introductory and Historical
1
Subdivisions of the Period of Childhood--The Notion of Puberty--Methods of Investigation.
Rousseau and Tissot--The Philanthropes--Medical Literature--The Older Psychology--History of
Civilisation--Studies of Prostitution--Works on Zoology--Biographies--Belletristic Literature--Erotic
Literature--Studies of Sexual Perversions--Recent Special Researches--Diaries.
II. The Reproductive organs--The Sexual Impulse
17
The Male Reproductive Organs--Erection--Ejaculation--The Voluptuous Sensation--Female
Reproductive Organs--Menstruation and Ovulation--Peripheral Processes, Erection, Ejaculation, and
Voluptuous Sensation, in the Female--The Reproductive Organs in Children.
Components of the Sexual Impulse--Excitement of the Sexual Impulse--The Sexual Impulse and the
Voluptuous Sensation.
III. Sexual Differentiation in Childhood
38
Secondary Sexual Characters--First Period of Childhood--Second Period of Childhood--Psychical
Differences in Children--The Teachings of Experimental Psychology--The Teachings of Empirical
Psychology
(Erfahrungspsychologie)--Inborn Character of Sexual Differences--Pathological Experiences--
Criminological Experiences.
IV. Symptomatology
50
xiii
Erections in the Child--Ejaculation--Origin of Ejaculation--Voluptuous Sensation.
The Undifferentiated Sexual Impulse--Examples--Phenomena of Contrectation in the Child--The
Object of Desire--Romanticism--Manifestations of Love--Jealousy--Love-Letters and Love-Poems--
Vanity--Shame--Differences between Boys and Girls--Changes in the Object of Desire.
Interdependence of the Processes of Contrectation and Detumescence--Temporal Relationship
between these respective Processes.
Masturbation--The Voluptuous Sensation--Modes of Masturbation--Erogenic Zones--Comparison
between Boys and Girls.
Ejaculation as a Consequence of Feelings of Anxiety--Pollutions--Madame Roland's Description--
Individual Differences--Sexual Phenomena in the Youth of the Lower Animals.
The Teachings of Castration--Significance of the Reproductive Glands--Theories.
The Years of Ripening--Retardation of Sexual Development.
V. Pathology
114
Pathologically Premature Menarche in Girls--Premature Puberty in Boys--Conditions met with in
Dwarfs--Sexual Parodoxy--Examples.
Sexual Perversions--Premature Development--Congenital Character of Perversions--Illusions of
Memory--Disappearance of the Perversions of Childhood--The Association Theory--Criticism of this
Theory--Instances in which Perversions could be traced back to a very early Age--Origin of Sexual
Perversions in Non-Sexual Dispositions--Homosexuality and Friendship--Sexual Cruelty and Cruelty
of other Kinds--Diagnostic Difficulties--Exhibitionism--Skatophilia--Hermaphroditism.
VI. Etiology and Diagnosis
146
Family Tendencies--Abnormal Nervous System--Race--Climate--Position in Life--Town and
Country--Modern
Civilisation--Importance
of
Congenital
Predisposition--Seduction--Local
Stimulation--Chemical Stimuli--Psychical Stimuli.
Diagnostic Difficulties--Recognition by means of Observation--Erroneous Diagnoses of Masturbation-
-The Value of Physical Signs--Value of a Confidant--Misleading Statements and Conduct on the part
of Children.
Non-Sexual Erections--Non-Sexual Manipulations--Sucking Movements--Nail-Biting--Imitativeness-
-Impossibility of any Definite Demarcation of Sexual Feelings.
VII. Importance of the Sexual Life of the Child
179
The Sexual Life and Morbid Hereditary Predisposition--Hygienic Dangers--The Dangers of
Masturbation in General--Of Masturbation in the Child--Masturbation without Ejaculation--
Exaggerated Views to be Avoided--Amatory Passion and Suicide--Freud's Theory--Infectious
Diseases.
Ethical Dangers--Masturbation and Ethics--Social Dangers--Social Degradation of Girls--Seduction
of Girls--Forensic Importance of the Sexual Life--Children's Evidence--Circumstances affecting
Culpability--Penal Responsibility of Children--Intellectual Dangers--Sexuality and Altruism.
Sexual Perversions and the Choice of a Profession--Punishments and Masochism--Curiosity of
Children--Sexuality and Art--The Question of the Offspring.
Importance of Tardy Sexual Development.
VIII. The Child as an Object of Sexual Practices
219
xiv
xv
Pædophilia Erotica--Other Sexual Offences against Children--Sexual Acts Performed on Children--
Significance of each Acts to the Child--Artificial Production of Sexual Perversions--False
Accusations--Statistics of Accusations by Children--Reasons for Protecting Children----Injuries
effected on Children by the Law--Responsibility of Pædophiles.
Exhibitionism--Sadism--Newspaper Advertisement.
IX. Sexual Education
246
Limits of Educability--General Hygiene--Custom and Morality--Inculcation of the Sentiments of
Shame and Disgust--Influence upon these Sentiments of Habit and Example--Morality and
Nakedness--Excessive Sentiments of Shame and Disgust--The Nude in Art--Morality in Fanatics--
Erotic Books and Pictures.
Co-Education of the Sexes--Children's Balls--Diversion of the Sexual Impulse--Religious Education--
The Bible--The Confessional--Hypnotism--Psycho-Analysis--Counteraction of Psychical Contagion.
Sexual Enlightenment--General Educational Interests--Hygienic Reasons for Enlightenment--The
Dangers of Venereal Infection--Of Masturbation--Ethical Reasons--Forensic Reasons--Social
Reasons--Age at which Enlightenment is Desirable--Place of Enlightenment; School or Home--The
School Physician--Importance of the Mother--Individualisation--Mode of Enlightenment.--Reasons
urged against Enlightenment--Need that the Instructor should be an Enlightened Person--Exaggerated
Views regarding the Importance of Sexual Enlightenment.
Physical Hygienic Measures--Stimulation by Means of the Bed--Local Stimulation--Mechanical
Measures--Hydrotherapeutic Measures--Dirt--Sport and Games--Féré's Method.
Pedagogy and Sexual Perversions--Dangers from Pædophiles--Necessity for Heterosexual
Influences--Dangers of Corporal Punishment--The Right of the Teacher to Inflict Punishment--
Conclusion.
Index of Subjects
325
Index of Names
337
THE SEXUAL LIFE OF
THE CHILD
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY AND HISTORICAL
To speak of "the sexual life of the child" seems at first sight to involve a contradiction in terms. It is generally assumed
that the sexual life first awakens at the on-coming of puberty (the attainment of sexual maturity of manhood or
womanhood); the on-coming of puberty is regarded as the termination of childhood; in fact the term child is usually
defined as the human being from the time of birth to the on-coming of puberty. But this contradiction is apparent merely,
and depends on the assumption that the on-coming of puberty is indicated by certain outward signs (more especially the
first menstruation and the first seminal emission), insufficient attention being paid to the long period of development
which usually precedes these occurrences. And yet, during this period of preliminary development, the occurrence of
certain manifestations of the sexual life is plainly demonstrable.
The period of childhood is subdivided into several sub-epochs, but the delimitation and nomenclature of these varies so
much with different investigators, that to avoid misunderstanding I must first define the subdivisions which I myself
propose to employ. If we regard the beginning of the fifteenth year as the termination of childhood, we may divide
childhood into two equal periods, the first extending from birth to the completion of the seventh year, the second from
the beginning of the eighth to the end of the fourteenth year. I shall in this work designate these two periods as the first
and the second period of childhood respectively. In the first period of childhood, the first year of life may be further
distinguished as the period of infancy.1 The first and second periods of childhood comprise childhood in the narrower
sense of the term. The years that immediately follow the beginning of the fifteenth year I shall denote as the period of
1
2
youth. Inasmuch as the symptoms of this latter come to differ from those of childhood proper, not abruptly, but
gradually, the first years, at least, of youth will often come under our consideration, and I shall speak of this period of
life as the third period of childhood. Although childhood in the narrower sense comprises the first and second periods
only, childhood in the wider sense includes also the third period. It is hardly possible that any misunderstanding can arise
if the reader will bear in mind that whenever I speak of childhood without qualification, I allude only to the period of life
before the beginning of the fifteenth year. For all these periods of childhood, first, second, and third, I shall for practical
convenience when speaking of males use the word boy, and when speaking of females, the word girl.
The use of this terminology must not be regarded as implying that the distinctions indicated correspond in any way to
fixed natural lines of demarcation; on the contrary, individual variations are numerous and manifold. Not only does the
rate of development differ in different races (in the Caucasian race, more especially, the age of puberty comes
comparatively late, so that among the members of this race childhood is prolonged); but further, within the limits of one
and the same race, notable differences occur. More than all have we to take into account the differences between the
sexes, childhood terminating earlier in the female sex than in the male—among our own people [the Germans] this
difference is commonly estimated at as much as two years. In addition, in this respect, there are marked differences
between different classes of the population, a matter to which we shall return in Chapter VI.
It is also necessary to point out here in what sense I employ the term puberty (nubility, sexual ripeness, or maturity),
and the associated terms, nubile and sexually mature. Much confusion exists in respect of the application of these
terms. Some use puberty to denote a period of time, others, a point of time, and in various other ways the word is
differently used by different authors. Similarly as regards the term nubile; some consider an individual to be nubile as
soon as he or she is competent for procreation, others speak of anyone as nubile only when the development of the
sexual life is completed. Obviously, these two notions are very different; for instance, a girl of thirteen who has begun to
menstruate may be competent for the act of procreation, and yet her sexual development may still be far from complete.
The confusion as regards the use of the substantive puberty is no less perplexing. One writer uses it to denote the time
at which procreative capacity begins, and believes he is right in assuming that in the male this time is indicated by the
occurrence of the first involuntary sexual orgasm.2 I may point out in passing that there is a confusion here between
procreative capacity and competence for sexual intercourse, for as a rule the first seminal emissions contain no
spermatozoa. But, apart from such confusions, the term puberty is used in various senses. Thus, a second writer
denotes by puberty the point of time at which the sexual development is completed; a third means by puberty the period
which elapses between the occurrence of the first involuntary orgasm and the completion of sexual development; a
fourth uses the word to denote the entire period of life during which procreative capacity endures; and finally, a fifth
includes under the notion of puberty the whole course of life after the completion of sexual development. In this work I
shall mean by puberty the period of life between the completion of sexual development and the extinction of the sexual
life. The period during which the state of puberty is being attained will be spoken of as the period of puberal
development, and I shall therefore speak of the beginning and the end of the puberal development. The terms
nubility, sexual maturity, nubile, and sexually mature, will be used with a similar signification. As regards the puberal
development, let me at the outset draw attention to the fact that it takes place very gradually; and further, as we shall
see, that it begins much earlier than is commonly believed. In the young girl, from the date of the first menstruation to the
time at which she has become fitted for marriage, the average lapse of time is assumed by Ribbing3 to be two years.
This is a fair estimate, but it does not correspond to the totality of the period of the puberal development. If we estimate
that period from its true beginning its duration greatly exceeds two years, for the first indications of the puberal
development are manifest in the girl long before the first menstruation, and in the boy long before the first discharge of
semen. The approach of puberty is indicated by numerous symptoms, some of which are psychical and some physical in
character. In perfectly healthy children, as will be shown in the sequel, individual symptoms may make their appearance
as early as the age of seven or eight, and further symptoms successively appear during succeeding years, until the
puberal development is completed.
What methods are available for the study of the sexual life of the child? Three methods have to be considered: first, the
observation of children; secondly, experiment; and thirdly, reports made by individuals regarding their own experiences.
As regards the last mentioned, we must distinguish clearly between accounts reproduced from memory long after the
incidents to which they relate, and accounts given by children of their state at the time of narration. But both varieties of
clinical history are defective. The child is often incompetent to describe his sensations—think, for instance, of the
processes of the earliest years of life. Even when the child is able to make reports, a sense of shame will often interfere
with the truthfulness of his account. Whilst as regards the memory-pictures of adults, recourse to this method often fails
us because the experiences are so remote as to have been largely, if not entirely, forgotten. The autobiographies of
sexually perverse individuals have drawn my attention to the fallacious nature of memory. Its records are uncertain, but
that especially is recorded which has aroused interest. Not only the interest felt in the experiences at the time determines
what shall be recorded, but also the interest felt later when reviving these experiences in memory. Childish experiences
are very readily forgotten, either if they were uninteresting at the time, or if subsequently they have become uninteresting.
During childhood, a homosexual woman has experienced sexual feeling, directed now towards boys, now towards girls.
Later in life, when the homosexuality has developed fully, the memory of the inclination towards boys fades away, and
her homosexual sentiments only are remembered. As a result, we often find that the homosexual woman—and the
converse is equally true of the homosexual man—declares at first, when inquiries are made, that she has never
experienced any inclination for members of the other sex; whereas, at any rate in a large proportion of cases, a stricter
3
4
5
examination of her memory, or the reports of other individuals, will reveal beyond dispute that in childhood heterosexual
inclinations were not lacking.
A further defect of memory has been made manifest to me by the study of perversions. Processes which in childhood
were entirely devoid of any sexual tinge, but which later became associated with sex-feelings, very readily acquire false
sexual associations also when they are revived in memory. Consider, for instance, the case of a homosexual man. He
remembers that, as a small boy, he was very fond of sitting on his uncle's knees, and he believes that the pleasure he
formerly experienced was tinged by sexual feeling. In reality this was by no means the case. His uncle took the boy on
his knee in order to tell him a story. Possibly, also, the riding movements which the uncle imitated by jogging his knees
up and down gave the child pleasure, which, however, was entirely devoid of any admixture of sexual feeling. But in the
consciousness of the full-grown man, in whom homosexual feeling has later undergone full development, all this
becomes distorted. The non-sexual motives are forgotten; he believes that even in early childhood he had homosexual
inclinations, and that for this reason it gave him pleasure to ride on his uncle's knees.
Nor is observation in any way adapted to furnish us with a clear picture of the sexual life of the child. So little can be
directly observed, that in the absence of reports much would remain entirely unknown. From the moment when the
children gain a consciousness, however obscure, of the nature of sexual processes, they almost invariably endeavour to
conceal their knowledge as much as possible, so that we shall discover its existence only by a rare chance. None the
less, the results of direct observation are often important; sometimes because we are able to watch children when they
are unaware of our attention, and sometimes because they do not as yet fully understand the nature of the processes
under observation, and for this reason are less secretive.
The third method, that of experiment, is available to us only in the form of castration. I need not dilate on the inadequacy
of this application of the experimental method, even apart from the fact that it subserves our purposes almost exclusively
in respect of the male sex—for in the case of young girls, castration (oöphorectomy) is almost entirely unknown.
Thus we see that all our methods of investigation exhibit extensive lacunæ, and further, that they are all in many respects
fallacious; we shall therefore endeavour to supplement each by the others, in order to arrive at results which shall be as
free from error as possible. Thus guided, we learn that sexual incidents occur in childhood far more frequently than is
usually supposed. So common are they, that they cannot possibly escape the notice of any practising physician or
educationalist who pays attention to the question, provided, of course, that he enjoys the confidence of the parents.
These latter have often been aware of such sexual manifestations in their children for a long time, but a false shame has
prevented them from asking the advice of the physician. They have been afraid lest he should regard the child as
intellectually or morally deficient, or as the offspring of a degenerate family. In addition, we have to take into account
self-deception on the part of the parents, who, indeed, often deceive themselves willingly, saying to themselves that the
matter is of no importance, and that the symptoms will disappear spontaneously.
Having given this brief account of the terminology to be employed and of the methods of investigation, I propose to
sketch no less briefly the history of the subject.
Casual references to the sexual life of the child are to be found even in the older scientific literature. In the latter half of
the eighteenth century, and at the beginning of the nineteenth, interest in the subject became more general. Two works,
in especial, published almost simultaneously, attracted the attention of physicians and educationalists. One of these,
Rousseau's Émile, discusses the proper conduct of parents and elders in relation to the awakening sexual life, and what
they should do in order to delay that awakening as much as possible. The other, the celebrated work of Tissot, depicts
the dangers of masturbation, but deals chiefly with persons who have attained sexual maturity. None the less, in
consequence of this book, much attention was directed to the sexual life of the child. Earlier works on masturbation,
such as that of Sarganeck, for instance, had not succeeded in arousing any enduring interest in this question. But
Rousseau's and Tissot's books induced a large number of physicians and educationalists to occupy themselves in this
province of study. Thus at this early day many authorities were led to advocate the sexual enlightenment of children, in
order to guide them in the avoidance of the dangers of the sexual life. An excellent historical and critical study of this
movement, written by Thalhofer, has recently been published.4 Among the educationalists who took part in it may be
mentioned Basedow, Salzmann, Campe, and Niemeyer. The modern movement in favour of sexual enlightenment
originated chiefly in the endeavour to prevent the diffusion of venereal diseases; but the earlier movement, occurring at a
time when much less was known about venereal diseases, had a different aim. This was rather to prevent masturbation
and other sexual excesses, on account of their direct effect upon the organism; an aim not neglected by the modern
movement for sexual enlightenment, though subsidiary to the object of the prevention of the venereal diseases. Teachers
of that day touched, of course, upon the subject of the sexual life of the child. But this was done cursorily, for when
instruction was given on the sexual life, not the actual experience of children, but the sexual life of mature persons, was
the subject of discourse. This must be said also of the works of those physicians who, like Hufeland in his Makrobiotik
(written as a sequel to the work of Tissot), spoke of the dangers of masturbation.
A few of the numerous medical books dealing with the puberal development deserve mention in this place; for instance,
Marro, La Pubertà (first edition, published in 1897), and Bacqué, La Puberté (Argenteuil, 1876). A number of recent
works on masturbation have also touched on the topic of the sexual life of the child.
Apart from these recent special investigations, the older and the more recent medical and anthropological literature
6
7
8
contains numerous observations which concern the subject of this book. More especially do we find reports of cases in
which the external manifestations of sexual maturity appeared in very early childhood. Now we find an account of a girl
menstruating at four years of age, now an account of a three-year-old boy who exhibited many of the external signs of
sexual maturity. Even in the older, purely psychological works we find occasional references to the sexual life of the
child—a fact that will surprise no one who is acquainted with the high development of the empirical psychology
(Erfahrungspsychologie) of that day (1800). The Venus Urania of Ramdohr, for instance, a work on the psychology
of love, emphasises the frequency of amatory sentiments in children.
In works dealing with the history of civilisation, we also encounter occasional references to our subject. Take, for
instance, the knightly Code of Love (Liebeskodex), a work highly esteemed in the days of chivalry, and legendarily
supposed to have originated in King Arthur's Court. Paragraph 6 of this Code runs: "A man shall not practise love until
he is fully grown." According to Rudeck,5 from whom I quote this instance, the aim of the admonition was to protect the
youth of the nobility from unwholesome consequences. Obviously, the love affairs of immature persons must have been
the determining cause of any allusion to the matter. We may also draw attention in this connexion to many marriage
laws, which show that the subject has come under consideration, either because they expressly sanction the marriages
of children, or, conversely, because they forbid such unions. At the present day, among many peoples (as, for instance,
the Hindus), child-marriages are frequent; and in many countries in which such marriages are now illegal, they were
sanctioned in former ages. Many works on prostitution also touch on our chosen subject. Parent-Duchâtelet, in his great
book, refers to girls who had become prostitutes at the ages of twelve or even ten years. I shall show later that in
individual instances such early prostitution is directly dependent upon the sexuality of the children concerned. Many
ethnological works also contribute to our knowledge of the sexual life of the child, describing, as they do, in certain
races, the early awakening of sexual activity.
Remarkably little material do we find, however, in many works in which we might have expected to find a great deal. I
refer to works on education and on the psychology of the child. In exceptional instances, indeed, as I have already
indicated, the educationalists have taken part in the movement in favour of sexual enlightenment. But when we consider
the enormous importance and great frequency of the sexual processes of the child, we are positively astounded at the
manner in which this department of knowledge has been ignored by those who have written on the science and art of
education, and by those psychologists who have occupied themselves in the study of the mind of the child. Has it been a
false notion of morality by which these investigators have been withheld from the elucidation of the sexual life of the
child? Or has the reason merely been their defective powers of observation? As a matter of fact, I suppose that both
these causes have operated in producing this remarkable gap in our knowledge.
A certain amount of material is to be found in a number of books on zoology, and also in a few quite recent works on
comparative psychology. Among works of the former class I mention especially that of Brehm, who has reported a
considerable number of individual details; of books on comparative psychology, one of the most useful for our purposes
is that of Groos,6 who gives us much valuable information regarding love-games of young animals.
I may also point out that in the autobiographies, biographies, memoirs, &c., of celebrated persons, we find much
information regarding premature amatory sentiments. Goethe, in his Wahrheit und Dichtung, relates that as a boy of
ten or so he fell in love with a young Frenchwoman, the sister of his friend Derones. Of Alfred de Musset, his brother
and biographer, Paul Musset, records that at the early age of four he was passionately in love with a girl cousin. It is on
record that Dante fell in love at the age of nine, Canova at five, and Alfieri at ten. Well known also is the story of
Byron's love, at eight years of age, for Mary Duff. Möbius tells us of himself that when a boy of ten he was desperately
enamoured of a young married woman. We are told of Napoleon I. that when a boy of nine he fell in love with his
father's cousin, a handsome woman of thirty, then on a visit to his home, and that he caressed her in the most passionate
manner. Belonging to an earlier day was Felix Platter, the celebrated Swiss physician of the sixteenth century, who tells
us in his autobiography that when he was a child he loved to be kissed by a certain young married woman. In Un
Coeur Simple, Flaubert describes the development of the love-sentiments. "For mankind there is so much love in life.
At the age of four we love horses, the sun, flowers, shining weapons, uniforms; at ten we love a little girl, our playmate;
at thirteen we love a buxom, full-necked woman. The first time I saw the two breasts of a woman, entirely unclothed, I
almost fainted. Finally, at the age of fourteen or fifteen, we love a young girl, who is a little more to us than a sister and a
little less than a mistress; and then, at sixteen, we love a woman once more, and marry her."
Most charmingly Hebbel describes his first experience of love, when but four years old. "It was in Susanna's dull
schoolroom, also, that I learned the meaning of love; it was, indeed, in the very hour when I first entered it, at the age of
four. First love! Who is there who will not smile as he reads these words? Who will fail to recall memories of some
Anne or Margaret, who once seemed to him to wear a crown of stars, and to be clad in the blue of heaven and the gold
of dawn; and now—but it would be malicious to depict the contrast! Who will fail to admit that it seemed to him then as
if he passed on the wing through the garden of the earth, flitting from flower to flower, sipping from their honey-cups;
passing too swiftly, indeed, to become intoxicated, but pausing long enough at each to inhale its divine perfume!... It
was some time before I ventured to raise my eyes, for I felt that I was under inspection, and this embarrassed me. But
at length I looked up, and my first glance fell upon a pale and slender girl who sat opposite me: her name was Emily,
and she was the daughter of the parish-clerk. A passionate trembling seized me, the blood rushed to my heart; but a
sentiment of shame was also intermingled with my first sensations, and I lowered my eyes to the ground once more, as
rapidly as if I had caught sight of something horrible. From that moment Emily was ever in my thoughts; and the school,
9
10
11
so greatly dreaded in anticipation, became a joy to me, because it was there only that I could see her. The Sundays and
holidays which separated me from her were as greatly detested by me as in other circumstances they would have been
greatly desired; one day when she stayed away from school, I felt utterly miserable. In imagination she was always
before my eyes, wherever I went; when alone, I was never weary of repeating her name; above all, her black eyebrows
and intensely red lips were ever before my eyes, whereas I do not remember that at this time her voice had made any
impression on me, although later this became all-important."
In belletristic literature, also, we find occasional references to the love-sentiment in childhood. Groos refers to an
instance which he thinks perhaps the most delicate known to him, and one in which the erotic element is but faintly
emphasised, namely, Gottfried Keller's Romeo und Julia. "In a spot entirely covered with green undergrowth the girl
stretched herself on her back, for she was tired, and began in a monotonous tone to sing a few words, repeating the
same ones over and over again; the boy crouched close beside her, half inclined, he also, to stretch himself at full length
on the ground, so lethargic did he feel. The sun shone into the girl's open mouth as she sang, lighting up her glistening
white teeth, and gleaming on her full red lips. The boy caught sight of her teeth, and, holding the girl's head and eagerly
examining her teeth, said, 'Tell me, how many teeth has one?' The girl paused for a moment, as if thinking the matter
carefully over, but then answered at random, 'A hundred.' 'No!' he cried; 'thirty-two is the proper number; wait a
moment, I'll count yours.' He counted them, but could not get the tale right to thirty-two, and so counted them again,
and again, and again. The girl let him go on for some time, but as he did not come to an end of his eager counting, she
suddenly interrupted him, and said, 'Now, let me count yours.' The boy lay down in his turn on the undergrowth; the girl
leaned over him, with her arm round his head; he opened his mouth, and she began counting: 'One, two, seven, five,
two, one,' for the little beauty did not yet know how to count. The boy corrected her, and explained to her how to
count properly; so she, in her turn, attempted to count his teeth over and over again: and this game seemed to please
them more than any they had played together that day. At last, however, the girl sank down on her youthful instructor's
breast, and the two children fell asleep in the bright midday sunshine."
In erotic literature we also occasionally find descriptions belonging to our province, as, for instance, in the Satyricon of
Petronius Arbiter. Indeed, a certain kind of erotic literature, more especially pornographic literature, selects this subject
by preference. Thus, I may allude to the Anti-Justine of Rétif de la Bretonne. In a certain section of such literature,
improper practices between children and their parents and other blood relatives play a part.
Recently, in connexion with two different fields of study, attention has been directed to the sexual life of the child. The
first of these is concerned with the abnormal, and especially the perverse, manifestations of the sexual life, a study of
which Westphal, and above all von Krafft-Ebing, have been the founders. The other is the modern movement in favour
of the sexual enlightenment of children. As regards the latter, the literature to which it has given rise has not, indeed,
contributed much, beyond a few casual references, in the way of positive material concerning the sexual life of the child.
But none the less, it is this movement which has made it of prime importance that our subject should be carefully
investigated. As regards studies of the abnormalities of the sexual impulse, under the name of paradoxical sexual
impulse cases have been published in which that impulse manifested itself at an age of life in which it is normally non-
existent—old age and childhood. Recent research has brought to light a large number of cases of this nature. Among
those who have reported such cases, we must mention first of all von Krafft-Ebing, and in addition, Féré, Fuchs, Pélofi,
and Lombroso.
In addition to these various works, others must be mentioned which have arisen mainly out of the recently awakened
interest in the sexual life; for example, works on puberty, the psychology of love, and similar topics. In his Fisiologia
del Amore (Physiology of Love), Mantegazza emphasises the love-manifestations of childhood. The same may be said
of many other general works on the sexual life, and more especially, as previously mentioned, of works on prostitution.
Certain works on offences against morality have also enriched our knowledge in this province.
It might at first sight appear from what has been said that the literature of the sexual life of the child was extremely
voluminous, but this is not in reality the case. Almost always, this important question is handled in a casual or cursory
manner. A thorough presentation of the subject has not, as far as my knowledge extends, hitherto been attempted.
Freud rightly insists that even in all, or nearly all, the works on the psychology of the child, this important department is
ignored. Quite recently, indeed, special works have appeared upon the sexual life of the child, among which I must first
of all mention Freud's own contribution to the subject, forming part of his Drei Abhandlungen zur sexuellen Theorie
(Three Essays on the Sexual Theory, Leipzig and Vienna, 1905).7 But what this writer describes as an indication of
infantile sexuality, viz., certain sucking movements, has, in my opinion, nothing to do with the sexual life of the child—as
little to do with sexuality as have the functions of the stomach or any other non-genital organ. A number of other
processes occurring in childhood, which Freud and his followers have recently described as sexual in nature, and as
playing a great part later in life in connexion with hysteria, neurasthenia, compulsion-neuroses, the anxiety-neurosis, and
dementia præcox, have very little true relationship to the sexual life of the child. In any case, Freud has not
systematically studied the individual manifestations of the sexual life of the child. I must also mention a small work by
Kötscher, Das Erwachen des Geschlechtsbewusstseins und seine Anomalien The Awakening of the
Consciousness of Sex and its Anomalies, Wiesbaden, 1907). Kötscher, however, does not give any detailed account
of the sexual life of the child; he starts, rather, from the sexual life of the adult, and only as a supplement to his account
of this does he give a few data regarding the awakening of the consciousness of sex. In the American Journal of
Psychology, July 1902, we find an elaborate study of the sexual life of the child. In this paper, A Preliminary Study of
12
13
14
15
the Emotion of Love between the Sexes, the writer, Sanford Bell, devotes much attention to the love-sentiments in
childhood. He discusses, indeed, only he...
